New Yorkers protest demapping

by Lavrentia Turkewicz

NEW YORK - On May 29, prior to a public meeting on the development plans of The Cooper Union in New York City, a group of Ukrainians gathered in protest in front of the main building at Cooper Square. The protest action was organized by the Ukrainian National Women's League of America Branch 127 in cooperation with the Ukrainian Art and Literary Club.

The main issue of concern to the Ukrainian community is the proposed removal of Taras Shevchenko Place from official New York City maps, that is, its demapping. Oksana Lykhovyd, president of UNWLA Branch 127, along with other members of the branch, sang songs to the poetry of Taras Shevchenko. In the kobzar tradition, Lavrentia Turkewicz played the bandura in accompaniment to the songs.

Protest participants held placards in their hands. One featured a portrait of Taras Shevchenko; others included copies of the front cover of the Daily News Magazine (May 1978) featuring a glasspainting by Yaroslava Surmach Mills, illustrating a tradition that persists to this day: Ukrainian youth performing hahilky (ritual spring dances) in front of St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church on the corner of Taras Shevchenko Place on Easter Sunday.

Still other placards bore slogans such as "Taras Shevchenko Place 'Yes!' Demapping 'No!'" and "New York City - You are destroying the culture of the Ukrainian community!"

The placards were designed and made by artist Slava Gerulak, director of the Ukrainian Art and Literary Club and the Mayana Gallery.

At the meeting in the Great Hall of The Cooper Union, attended by approximately 600 persons, Jaroslaw Kurowyckyj, chairman of the Shevchenko Place Preservation Committee, thanked the UNWLA branch for staging the protest.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 1, 2001, No. 26, Vol. LXIX

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